Radiation characteristics enhancement of dual‐polarized antipodal Vivaldi antenna using double‐slot structure

In this article, a dual‐polarized double‐slot antipodal Vivaldi antenna (DP‐DsAVA) is proposed to solve the problem of conventional four‐element dual‐polarized antipodal Vivaldi antennas in that the side lobe level increases as frequency increases, and a grating lobe is generated at frequencies above one octave. The DP‐DsAVA comprises two modified double‐slot antipodal Vivaldi antennas (DsAVAs), which are suitable for dual‐polarized implementation through incision and intersection, and each crossed DsAVA implements each polarization separately. Therefore, the proposed antenna does not produce a grating lobe within the operating frequency range, and it has a lower side lobe level compared to that of a conventional antenna. Measurements of the proposed antenna indicate that its impedance bandwidth is 5.4 to 16.4 GHz, and no grating lobe occurs within this bandwidth. At the operating frequency, the gain is 8.4 to 10.6 dBi, and the cross‐polarization level is below −18 dB.